Revise Witchcraft Act, local courts are abusing it-Headman

A traditional leader in Mumbwa district has petitioned government to scrap the witchcraft act from the laws of the country.

Village Headman Chalobesa told the Legal and Justice Reform Commission sitting in Mumbwa that the witchcraft act is not serving the required purpose it was crafted to do.

He complained that the local courts are abusing the witchcraft act in adjudicating cases when it cannot be proved in a court of law.

Headman Joshua Chalobesa submitted to the Legal and Justice Reform Commission that local courts be stopped from demanding for proof of witchcraft and admitting it in court to adjudicate cases.

Mr Chalobesa said aggrieved persons are normally sent to Kaoma where it is believed that there is a powerful witch finder who issues written evidence confirming witchcraft practice upon which the local courts make judgement.

He said such evidence should not be allowed in a court of law because it is an illegality.
Mr Chalobesa said the practice is unfair because it is difficult to prove witchcraft in a court of law due to the mysterious nature.

He observed that witch finders are splitting families apart and must be stopped at all costs in order to protect families from victimisation and infringement of their human rights.

However, Justice Frederick Chomba said it is wrong for court officials to admit such witchcraft evidence in court as it is against the law.

He said it is an offense for anyone to label or describe another person as a witch.
Justice Chomba said the practice by local court justices is a glaring disregard for the law and directed that the practice be immediately stopped.

And 57 year old Anne Siachongwe said people are living in fear because of rampant witchcraft in the area.

Mrs. Siachongwe appealed to relevant authorities to address the issue of witchcraft so that ordinary citizens are protected and live in peace.

The commission urged people to change their mind sets over long held beliefs and notions over witchcraft in order to live in harmony in a modern society.

22 COMMENTS

While, the justice system is also looking for witchcraft. No wonder the politics of hiding into a twigged “laptop” with the likes of Ketele!
Politics of voodoo, no economic development & education attainment. Witchcraft in Zambia seems to have become a profession. Killing & cursing others, wishing others ill has taken over the well being of living or caring for others.
Primitivism whilst it lasts!
Developed countries have immigration policies in place, quarantine is the solution. No animal like mechanize, roots, bugs or worms are aloud in. No vikusikusi in the luggage, it won’t work.
Those issues’ of witchcraft are practiced by delusional cults, only God is the BEST.
Lowanani mweeka ba Chimbwi!
The Skeleton Key
~206~

God says do not practice witchcraft. Shouldn’t we say it exists? We have to innovate ways in which we can either debug the mirth that witchcraft does really exist or does not. To tell the citizenry that has held belief in the existence of witchcraft for several generations to simply wish it away is a tall order Bwana Commissioners.

The Witchcraft of the Christian Belief is are up of fables. The fact is none of the people that are accused of Witchcraft are Witches. So innocent people are being accused of falsehoods. It is those hunting the Witches that are criminal and doing criminal activity. It is they that should be punished as the criminal and what they are doing is completely illegal.

The least we can go in this direction is incorporate this nonsense witch act into defamation statutes. Often times fo.ols with weak faculties want to blame others for their own ineptitude. I recall how a wealthy elderly woman was accused of siphoning cash out of some red-neck Zambian desperadoes who had never achieved a thing in their sorry lives. They ended up being charged and still blamed it on the “witch” as further evidence she had bewitched the local court justices too… Pathetic backwardness.

kikikikikikikiki, kalok you made me laugh the way you have described them. I hav also been a victim just after buying a GMC my own relatives started of being a vampire. I just used to brush it aside others even bringing pastors home. A black man is still a very primitive, backward and savage person almost at par with an animal

Witchcraft is real. it exists. ask our chiefs and they’ll tell you that it exists. ask KK and he’ll tell you that Mushala was only killed by using a higher witch finder. you can’t prove it in courts of law. but it does not mean that it does not exist. God and Satan exist but we can’t prove them in courts of law. it is foolish to discount existence of witchcraft. a judge disproving it is a witch himself.

Poverty and poor education breeds superstition. ?Belief in witchcraft leads to violence, harvesting of body parts and some of the most vulnerable people in society being ostracized from their communities.
Truth be known, malicious envy is what it comes down to. Therein lies the rub. The haves and the have -not’s, and the motivating force of greed.
Any good social anthropologist will affirm that the roots of the “witchcraze” in Africa lie in malicious envy.

It is the alleged powerful witch finders, that are committing fraud, and, the foolishness of, local courts that are getting innocent people accused of false impossible crimes. Based on this fraud, people are being encouraged to commit crimes against neighbors and family members.

Now for those that are Christian it is you who go after people that your are falsely told are witches that are going to face Judgment Day and you know the penalty for harming innocent people, and much worse killing innocent. Satan will enjoy having you to torture. As Satan will for those wicked witch finders ad those corrupt local courts.

Clear sign of backwardness ! Wake up, your friends around the world held those outdated beliefs 600 years ago!Move with the times.What this headman should advocating is a complete repeal of the witchcraft laws and an introduction of a fraudelent mediums Act to outlaw the so-called witch finders who are just common thieves who rob people and target the aged for untold cruelty.I saw a video of supposed witches being burnt alive in some obscure country on you tube recently and I just couldn’t fathom the savage barbarity.What hope is there for Africa when you find seemingly enlightened people still buying into such archaic nonsense.